It's Interesting...

Firsthand is a sports reality documentary series airing on Fuel TV and based in Denver, Colorado. It features interviews from athletes in many different types of extreme sports. Season twelve began airing on July 25, 2011. Personalities featured on the show have...

Types of extreme sports

What Types of People Do Extreme Sports?

Kupciw & MacGregor (2012) define high-risk sports as activities that imply a possibility of injury or death, and in order to minimize the risks associated with the sport, specialized equipment is often needed.

A number of extreme sports have become increasingly popular and accepted by the general population of Western societies. In 1979, Zuckerman defined sensation seeking as:

“The need for varied, novel and complex sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experience.” (p. 28).

There has been a tendency to view all extreme sports participants as thrill seekers, but when we investigate it more closely, two types of risk-takers appear:

The ones who deliberately take risks and put themselves in situations where failures are likely to be fatal

The ones who are more precautionary so that they minimize the risks of their sport

A precautionary approach is associated with fewer accidents, which means that danger in itself does not lead to accidents. Therefore, people who do extreme sports are not all deliberate risk-takers. It is more likely that people seek risks to achieve a sense of control – so it is not the risk itself that is attractive.

also propose that risk-taking behaviors are the fundamental driving force between discoveries and scientific development, and therefore, risk-taking behaviors are in our human nature.

A new study by used a typological approach to personality and risk-taking behaviors, e.g. mountaineering, rock climbing, and skydiving.

A typological approach assumes that different personality types are associated with specific behaviors (e.g., risk-taking). If you need to read up on personality types, go to